Albuquerque, NM – Mayor Richard J. Berry, the Solid Waste Management Department and Friedman Recycling formally cut the ceremonial ribbon on a new state-of-the-art single-stream Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) today. The brand new MRF is part of a public/private partnership between the City of Albuquerque and Friedman Recycling.

Your plastic bottles, cans, small e-waste, corrugated cardboard, chip board, plastics #1 - #7s, pots and pans and paper products will visit this cutting-edge, 89,000 square foot MRF. The new facility is a single stream, dry processing, and sorting plant. An estimated 120,000 tons of recyclable material will be sorted at the new facility each year, helping to reduce the amount of trash that is sent to the landfill.

"This new facility is a symbol of our commitment to recycling and forever changes the way Albuquerque recycles," Mayor Richard J. Berry said. "This state-of-the-art facility brings with it 35 new jobs for the Albuquerque economy and will grow to 75 employees over time.”

The new MRF cost approximately $21M to build. Friedman Recycling paid all costs associated with building the new MRF.

"Friedman Recycling is proud to have formed this partnership with Mayor Berry and the City of Albuquerque who understands the importance of recycling," said David Friedman, CEO Friedman Recycling. "Friedman Recycling is happy to be a corporate citizen of the City of Albuquerque and looks forward to helping change the way the city recycles."

The Solid Waste Management Department has delivered 48,500 blue recycling carts during its current city wide distribution. A total of 146,000 carts will be delivered by the end of October, 2013 to every Solid Waste customer, completing a six month roll-out.

For a complete list of what will be collected in the blue cart please visit www.cabq.gov/solidwaste.